By Xinhua
London : In a breakthrough in spinal injury treatment, American scientists have said they have succeeded in using a bypass technique to restore movement in paralysed rats.
Using similar technique used in heart bypass surgery, where veins from a patient’s leg are used to get around an artery blockage, scientists at Columbia University in New York have shown that nerves can also be used to circumvent spinal damage and reconnect the brain to the body, the New Scientist reported Thursday.
The pioneering technique, successfully used in experiments with rats, raises the prospect of the first human trials within five years, which could help thousands of people regain feeling, the scientists said.
In experiments on rats with spinal injuries, the scientists under the leadership of John Martin, a neuroscientist at Columbia University, cut away a nerve from just above the injury that normally stretches into the body to control abdominal muscles and reattached it to the spine below the injury. The rats went on to show an increase in movements of previously paralyzed limbs.
The nerves, which control movement, were able to regenerate effectively within the spinal cord.
When the nerves were reattached to the spinal cord they grew well and returned some function to the body, Martin said.
Reconnecting a single nerve would not be sufficient to reactivate all of a patient’s lost functions, and the patient would have to decide with their doctor which lost function is to be restored to improve their quality of life.
Martin admitted that the technique would need much more refinement, but said if all went well and because it employed surgical techniques already commonly used by doctors, trials in humans could start in five years.